In the typical office environment, a relatively large, open office area is divided into a selected arrangement of office workstations by any of a number of commercially available wall panel systems. These wall panel systems include wall panels which are adapted to mount thereon a wide variety of shelves, cabinets, work surfaces and other panel-mounted components and systems furniture.
As an alternative to the panel systems, workstations may also be formed by stand-alone transportable workstations which are readily repositioned and opened for use, and readily closed for storage and transport. Such stand-alone workstations can be used in such locations as, for example, home offices, hotels which accommodate business travelers, or office areas intermittently used for a wide variety of office activities.
Accordingly, a need exists for a cabinet unit having a variable-position work surface which compliments, for example, the panel system or stand-alone workstations of the type described above, or which can be used as a small stand-alone workstation. In particular, most conventional office furniture products are not sufficiently portable or sufficiently compact for use with existing workstations, and are not easily and compactly storable so as to facilitate quick set up and take down, so as to permit use in combination with available panel systems and stand-alone workstations.
The present invention relates to an improved cabinet unit having a pivoting height-adjustable work surface, which cabinet unit is readily portable and storable and usable either as a stand-alone work area or integrated with existing systems furniture. In a preferred embodiment, the pivoting work surface is attached to a base unit and overlies a table top of the base unit when in a closed position. The pivoting work surface is usable in the closed position but preferably is pivoted to an open position to expose the cabinet table top.
The improved cabinet unit, when in the closed condition, is readily moveable for storage or for permitting reconfiguration of the office space by moving the cabinet unit adjacent an existing workstation or to its own assigned area for use as a stand-alone work area. Such storability and flexibility is readily satisfied by the pivoting, height-adjustable work surface which is rotatable to the closed position and locked by adjusting the height of the worksurface. As a result, the cabinet unit is easily repositioned to a storage area or to another work location.
Once repositioned for use, the cabinet unit is readily reopened by raising the work surface and pivoting the work surface relative to the base unit of the cabinet into a selected angular position for use either as a stand-alone unit or in combination with preexisting workstations. When pivoted to the open position, the pivoting work surface has an open area underneath so as to be usable as a desk while the cabinet top is usable as an auxiliary work surface. Since the base unit can include file drawers, shelves or the like, the inventive cabinet unit is able to serve a wide variety of functions in a typical office environment.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and in inspecting the accompanying drawings.